Wall St flat as investors await Xi meeting

US stocks were little changed on Tuesday, as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the first-quarter earnings season and fretted about President Donald Trump's ability to deliver on tax reform and other promises.

Investors also focused on a potentially tense meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping set for the end of the week. Retail stocks swooned after downgrades and a Ralph Lauren announcement it was shutting its flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York and cutting jobs.

"We're sitting on the sidelines waiting for earnings to begin in earnest next week," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst, Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.03 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 20,689.24, the S&P 500 gained 1.32 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 2,360.16 and the Nasdaq Composite added 3.93 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 5,898.61.

While Trump's pro-business policy promises have helped US equities hit record highs since the November 8 election, recent setbacks in pushing reforms through Congress have led investors to question his ability to deliver.

Even if earnings are good, Phipps said, stocks may still be overvalued without the substantial tax cuts the market has already priced in.

"The only way you can justify price earnings multiples is if you assume you get corporate tax reform," said Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, Texas.

Phipps said he will watch the Trump-Xi meeting closely for news on North Korea and China-US trade relations.

"There's a lot of waiting until Friday. The payroll numbers and the meeting with China's Xi." "The elephant in the room is Washington. Right now its all about politics."

Stocks saw some support earlier in the session when Trump said US infrastructure spending could top $1 trillion and said his administration was working on a major "haircut" for Dodd-Frank banking regulations.

The S&P industrial sector ended up 0.2 per cent while the materials sector closed up 0.4 per cent.

Financial investors appeared sceptical, however, as the S&P bank subsector ended down 0.3 per cent.

Ralph Lauren shares fell 4.5 per cent to $77.74. The retailer's struggles were seen as a worrying sign for a sector losing ground to online rivals. Nordstrom Inc closed down 5.5 per cent, while L Brands Inc fell 4.4 per cent after a brokerage downgrade.

Airlines were weak, with American Airlines dropping 3.7 per cent to $40.90 after rival Delta Airlines Inc cut the forecast for a key revenue metric for the second time in less than a month. Delta shares fell 2.6 per cent to $45.11.

About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, compared with the 6.8 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and seven new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 38 new highs and 48 new lows.